I can already tell I'm not smart enough to play Stellaris

As you age, it's generally recognized that what you lose in strength you make up for in wisdom. But I must be in some in-between age where I can't even do 10 push-ups anymore, yet Paradox games still make me feel like an idiot.

Paradox launches Stellaris today, and it's their outer-space take on their signature brand of super expansive, super open-ended, and super hard strategy games. It looks pretty. And the write-ups I've read and the podcasters I've listened to talk about gerrymandering as a suitable strategy in this masterful 4X'er for sci-fi grognards.

I'm fascinated, but still probably unable to dig into this one. I've been informed it's a little like Crusader Kings II (Gaming Nexus score , and something that's anything like Crusader Kings II will likely remain unpenetrable for me. Hopefully we can put our #1 strategy guy, Tom Bitterman, on the case for getting a review of Stellaris up.

Of further interest to modders is that Stellaris will be highly moddable. I'm not sure if that means there'll be horse armor and nude mods, but I wouldn't put anything past modders.

Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer of truly grand strategy games, today released Stellaris for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. Stellaris is the latest game from Paradox Development Studio, the creators of such deep strategy series as Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, and more. In the studio's first-ever sci-fi grand strategy game, players can begin a journey into a randomly generated universe as the species of their choice — exploring new worlds, encountering new beings, and facing the challenges of intergalactic colonization, diplomacy, warfare, perils, and crises.

In Stellaris, players must guide a species of their own design to power and glory in the depths of space. From humble beginnings as players leave their home planet and explore the unknown, to tense "first contact" moments with alien species, to the difficult choices and responsibilities of managing diplomatic relationships with other star-faring races, Stellaris presents the iconic gameplay of a Paradox grand strategy title on a galactic scale. With randomly created opponents and procedurally generated star systems, no two games can ever play out the same way.

For more information about Stellaris, visit http://www.stellarisgame.com/